Mom’s Apple Syrup

A deliciously simple homemade syrup to top your favorite pancake, waffle or french toast that tastes and smells like fall.

Syrup That Compliments a Healthy Pancake

---

What good is a pancake without some yummy syrup? Please don’t drown your delicious, healthy pancake (a grain free pancake recipe, an adaptable pancake recipe, a gluten free, dairy free pancake) in an unhealthy syrup.

Here is the ingredient list from a shapely plastic bottle off the store shelf:  High Fructose Corn Syrup, Corn Syrup, Water. Contains 2% or less of: Cellulose Gum, Salt, Cane Syrup, Caramel Color, Sodium Hexametaphosphate, Sodium Benzoate And Potassium Sorbate (Preservatives), Natural And Artificial Flavors, Citric Acid, Molasses, Lactic Acid, Mono And Diglycerides.

The first ingredient is High Fructose corn syrup, a very cheap sweetener with high levels of fructose. The cheapest food choice is often the most highly processed which decreases the real food value. It contributes to the obesity problem that we have in America. On a more personal note, my daughter gets a headache every time she eats it, so we try to avoid it.

Pay attention to your own body, or those that you feed in your homes. What things are triggers for them? High Fructose corn syrup might be one.

There Are Healthy Options

---

Real Food Syrup

---

Today I am going to give you a delicious syrup option that you can make at home, with real food ingredients, that will complement and complete those healthy pancakes you just put your heart and soul into making.

This is syrup that my mom made when we were growing up. It still reminds me of eating pancakes as a little girl and it tastes like fall, when the leaves change, and the wind turns cold. Hopefully, you love it as much as we do. I will first give you the recipe exactly as I received it from I mom and then I will show you how I tweak it.

Mom’s Apple Syrup

1 cup sugar

2 tablespoon cornstarch

½ teaspoon pumpkin pie spice (see notes)

2 cups apple juice (see notes)

2 tablespoons lemon juice

4 tablepoons butter

¼ teaspoon cinnamon

¼ teaspoon nutmeg

dash of cloves

Add sugar, cornstarch, pumpkin pie spice, apple juice and lemon juice into a saucepan. Stir well until cornstarch is dissolved. Turn on stove top to medium –high heat. Bring to boil. Boil 1 minute, stirring regularly. Remove from heat and add butter, ¼ t cinnamon, ¼ t nutmeg and a dash of cloves. Stir well. Serve it on pancakes, waffles, french toast or anything else your heart desires. (Those chunks in the syrup below are my frozen lemon juice cubes!)

Tweak It Version – Mom’s Apple Syrup

½ cups pure maple syrup or honey

1/4-1/2 cup coconut sugar

2 tablespoon organic cornstarch or arrowroot starch

½ teaspoon pumpkin pie spice (see notes)

2 cups organic, unfiltered apple juice or apple sauce (see notes. If using applesauce, leave out the cornstarch)

2 tablespoons organic lemon juice

2-4 tablespoons grass-fed butter (When I need it to be dairy free, I leave this out. It is a smidge less rich but delicious nonetheless. You can also use your favorite dairy free butter.)

¼ t cinnamon

¼ t nutmeg

dash of cloves

Add sweeteners, starch, pumpkin pie spice, apple juice and lemon juice into a saucepan. Stir well until starch is dissolved. Turn on stove top to medium –high heat. Bring to boil. Boil 1 minute, stirring regularly. Remove from heat and add butter (if using), ¼ t cinnamon, ¼ t nutmeg and a dash of cloves. Stir well. Serve it on pancakes, waffles, french toast or anything else your heart desires.

Tweak It Notes

---

• SPICES – You can add 1 teaspoon of pumpkin pie spice in the initial ingredients instead of adding the cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves at the end. I always make it with the additional spices at the end because that is how my mom made it and I just love the flavor but if you make it the other way, it will be just as yummy. I actually like the added spices at the end because you get little chunks of cinnamon that haven’t dissolved all the way, and I love those. You can see them floating on the top of the syrup in the first picture. So yummy!
• CORNSTARCH – You want to use organic cornstarch if you are trying to avoid GMO’s. All conventional corn in the the US is GMO. If you want more information about GMO’s, Just Ingredients host Karalynne Call has a podcast called “Is Glyphosate okay to eat? Is it doing anything to our Health?” with Andrew Kimbrell – podcast number 108. It has a lot of helpful information about GMO’s.
• SWEETENERS – Does changing sugars even matter? It does matter. Natural sweeteners have real food value. They contain minerals and vitamins that refined white sugar does not contain. Coconut sugar, maple syrup and honey all have a lower glycemic index than white sugar. They are still sweeteners and do need to be eaten with moderation but most bodies react differently to natural sweeteners. Personally, eating white sugar makes my knees achy, when I eat natural sweeteners, they aren’t. Pay attention to your body, it will tell you where you need to be careful.

Applesauce

---